Sometimes it doesn’t take many hands to make light work, occasionally it simply needs one person dedicated to an innovative locally designed and manufactured product, as is the case with the Harald Martin Schulz’s company Suntoy, and its manufacturing of the Consol Solar Jar.

Harald explains that his initial business plan was for a warehouse, the Green Energy Warehouse, to stock renewable energy products and supply logistic expertise to the industry.

However, these plans changed after my wife brought back a solar powered cricket from England, which inspired me to start a small flea market business selling solar toys. This, ultimately, attracted the attention of Consol Glass, which asked me to turn their one-litre preservative jar into a solar-powered light.

— Harald Martin Schulz, Suntoy

Harald points to the company’s dedication to continuous quality and product improvement, coupled with great service and a bucketful of passion as being the keys to its success.

He says he envisages creating a new unique product every year, with the launch of the company’s second product, the ‘SolarTop’, due in July.

We aim to retain the focus on the Solar Jar, while also developing additional solar powered products. Naturally, we could use further investment in the business, this would assist us with new product development, and we could also
use better marketing expertise.

— Harald Martin Schulz, Suntoy

Finally, we want to replace our aging IT infrastructure and obtain easy-to-use, human-friendly, up-to-date and reliable business tools.

— Harald Martin Schulz, Suntoy

Listen to the full conversation between 702 development specialist Pavlo Phitidis, Harald Martin Schulz and Xolani Gwala below...